harry potter re-watch: part 1

New series, y’all. It is mainly an excuse to re-watch a whole lot of Harry Potter, but hey. Exams are over, and I like having thoughts about Harry Potter.

Accuracy to the book:

Decent! I like some of the jokes that are made purely in movie-verse, such as Seamus’ proclivity to blow things up. This is precisely the same humour JK uses in the books, but is just a bit more visual. I’m not exactly a Harry Potter purist, but, as I will discuss, what they did with some of the later movies hurt me. Deeply.

Although where is my ‘Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!’?

Acting:

Bless them, no one’s watching for their stellar acting. Saying that, this is the first time I’ve re-watched this since Alan Rickman’s death earlier this year, and his ‘bottle fame, brew glory’ speech gave me awful shivers.

Special effects:

2001, and not too shabby! Then again, the nostalgia factor makes some of the less convincing special effects just seem endearing to me.

Nostalgia value:

10,000/10.

General thoughts:

If the eventual re-make of these doesn’t cast a mixed race Harry or a black Hermione, I will personally lead the riot. It is only now, when I can get past the nostalgia and the magic that I can really appreciate what a good analogy it is. (Although in later posts I will be getting into some of the ways in which this breaks down in the subsequent movies.)

This is particularly relevant in light of JK’s continual release of information about Ilvermorny, the American school, and how bloody racist it is looking. Someone on Twitter (I can’t remember who – if you know please give me their name) came up with the idea of having Native American authors write the Ilvermorny stories and histories so to use their folklore respectfully. This could have been a really great opportunity for debut own voices.

Finally, a bit of a story: in Harry Potter World in Orlando, Florida, there’s an Ollivanders’ shop. About 20-30 people are let into the shop at one time, but only one is picked to try out wands just like Harry does in the movie. I was surrounded by 30 eight-year-olds, but 14 year-old me was still picked! When picking up the final wand, there are ethereal beams of light, and the iconic Potter music is played… not going to lie, this was one of the best days of my life.

I found a version on YouTube, should you be interested. Needless to say, much like the little boy, I was grinning like a madman the entire time.